Women in College: Life as a ROTC Woman
by Teresa A. Fazio

Originally published Oct. 20, 2000 on studentadvantage.com.

This is the tenth in a series of articles and columns on the lives of women in college today.

I came for the scholarship. I stayed for the camraderie. Well, that and the machine guns.

I'm a Marine-Option in Navy ROTC. ROTC, the Reserve Officer Training Corps, builds college students into military officers while paying their tuition. Being a Marine-Option means I'll serve at least four years of active duty in the Marine Corps after graduation. "But wait," you might say (if you knew me), "don't get offended, but... you're kinda short. And you're a girl, for Chrissake. What're you doing with the Marines?"

In our ultra-PC society, where the military is often seen as an irrelevant right-wing relic from our country's conservative past, I hear all of the inevitable questions you'd expect about women in ROTC. "Have you experienced sexism?" people ask me. "What do the boys in ROTC think of you? Are you learning anything? Will you ever go to war?" By far the most common question is, "You seem like such a nice girl; what happened?"

When I was 12, I walked into a Marine Corps recruiting station with my family because the camping gear in the window intrigued my younger brothers. The recruiter gave us some posters and astounded me with his courtesy and professionalism. Five years later, when I found out the Marines offered college scholarships, I knew the Corps was for me.

Have I observed sexism in ROTC or in the Navy and Marine Corps? Not in my unit. Women and men train together in ROTC; they take the same naval science classes and PT (short for "physically train") side-by-side. Female midshipmen regularly hold positions as high as battalion commander.

But have I seen the more subtle kind of sexism — the kind that manifests itself in sighs, smirks and poor fitness reports?

You might be surprised to find the answer is no. I myself was surprised when I interviewed for the ROTC scholarship. I asked my interviewer, a captain, his opinion of women in the Marine Corps. "We just treat 'em all like Marines," he replied. Women are rare in the Corps; only five of the 25 Marine-Options here in the Boston area are female. That's actually an abnormally high ratio; usually there are only a couple per unit. But in training we are always treated the same as men.

In the past two years, the main qualities ROTC has helped me gain are confidence and leadership skills. They've helped me tremendously in college, especially in study groups and lab (I'm a physics major). When everyone else is still arguing over what kind of pizza we should order for our late-night study session, I'm the one who ends up saying, "So, that's two pepperonis, one cheese, one mushroom-and-peppers, and two bottles of Coke. Now what's up with this three-dimensional Schrodinger equation?"

In ROTC, women who otherwise wouldn't be expected to make on-the-spot choices are taught to be decisive. As a result, we frequently seem like we know what we're doing, so we're more likely to make ourselves heard in class. Confidence is especially important for quiet women who would otherwise be lost in the din of shouting labmates, fast-talking profs, and chatty study partners.

Another trademark of ROTC training is learning to always keep people informed. In the military, if you pass on the wrong information — or, worse, none at all — it could cost people their lives. In ROTC, we tell those ranked below us about our battalion's activities, and we keep our advisors informed of our academic progress. This open dialogue has helped me in college, too, where I've become more comfortable discussing problems with my professors. ROTC's leadership training encourages us to speak up in any situation — even if we used to be the kind of students who never asked questions in class.

This confidence also applies to a key concern for young women anywhere: safety. Our instructors train us in simple hand-to-hand combat techniques. So when I'm walking around MIT's urban campus late at night, I'm still nervous, but I know what to do in case someone does try to attack me.

Training: Not a Walk in the Park

A strong bond develops amongst all the midshipmen that rise at 0500 three days a week to PT along the Charles River in Massachusetts. We run, lift, climb and puke together, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Whether you're a man or a woman, the ROTC physical regimen is demanding. We attend early-morning workouts for three hours a week. We run obstacle courses, do calisthenics, climb ropes and lift weights. Occasionally we play a "normal" sport (like soccer or basketball), but it almost always turns into a "Marine-Option" sport. Soccer becomes four-ball indoor tackle soccer, which helps us develop our aggressiveness and competitive spirit. We learn to tap into this reserve of aggressive energy whenever we're confronted with a difficult situation: being mugged late at night, for instance, or even getting skewered on an exam. The competition builds a spirit of camaraderie between us midshipmen. Teams aren't split up according to gender; everyone helps everyone else.

The Marine Corps Physical Fitness Test is slightly different for females. We are allowed slower run times and do a flexed-arm hang (something akin to a minute-long pullup) instead of regular pull-ups. This allows for the natural physiological differences between males and females: Women generally have less upper-body strength and can't run as fast, although a few have been known to score perfect on the men's physical fitness test.

"But what about boys?" most people ask. Being a Marine-Option, especially as an underclassman, is sometimes like having 20-odd older brothers. During freshman year when I mentioned I had a boyfriend, two of the seniors pulled me aside and said, "Hey, Fazio, if this boyfriend gives you any trouble, just let us know and we'll straighten him out." I'm perfectly confident in my ability to "straighten out" my own boyfriend, but I'm also glad my fellow midshipmen care enough to try to protect me.

Midshipmen are allowed to date each other, provided we act professionally at all times (i.e., mushy public displays of affection are out of the question). Finding dates to our twice-yearly military balls isn't difficult, either; many non-ROTC guys are curious about what we do. Lots of us also go alone or in groups. We're required to wear our uniforms to the formals, which is a lot cheaper than finding a "real" dress and eliminates the catty competition over hair, clothes and makeup that sometimes overwhelms otherwise-clearheaded college women.

Each summer, we get a taste of the "real" military through specialized training. Males and females are afforded the same opportunities in summer training — except for submarines and Mountain Warfare School, which are only open to males. These are among the few areas in which I've witnessed any institutionalized sexism; the United States military says I can't drive a tank into battle. Submarine and ground combat are the last all-male bastions of the Navy and Marine Corps. I will never go into direct combat during wartime, though I can serve in a combat-support capacity, like communications or supply.

Last summer, I attended a two-week combined arms exercise with midshipmen from all over the country (14 males, eight females). We observed medical, military police, communications, intelligence, aviation and motor transport operations, and spent four days in the desert observing infantry maneuvers. The Marines treated us all with interest and respect. I was especially gratified at the end of each day, when we'd drop our packs in formation and bed down for the night. Females weren't banished to a remote corner of the camp; we stayed with our platoon. Sleeping on both sides of me were male midshipmen with whom I'd worked all day. Our gender didn't matter. We were all training to become Marines.

Everyone got target practice with M-16 assault rifles. Everyone got to dry-fire the AT-4 rocket launcher. Everyone jumped in the swimming pool with full combat gear on. Yes, a few crusty veterans of the "Old Corps" seemed wary of females infiltrating their ranks, but they treated us all with respect. And I did see more misogynistic jokes on Port-O-Potty walls than I care to recall, but that is not particular to the military; enter a men's restroom anywhere and you'll probably see worse.

ROTC has given me the confidence to pursue a difficult goal: becoming a United States Marine. They don't care if I'm a man or a woman; they are interested in whether or not I can get the job done. Sure, it may seem like a boys' club sometimes. But if you're a woman in ROTC, you become one of the boys.

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